International air travel in India has taken a step towards the paperless future, with Digi Yatra trials for international passengers beginning at seven airports across the country. The Ministry of Civil Aviation announced on Sunday, 1 November, that the trials will run through November and December 2026, with a wider rollout planned for 2027 based on passenger feedback.
The trials are being conducted at Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Chennai and Amritsar airports, and are initially available to passengers travelling on select international flights operated by Air India and IndiGo. Eligible passengers are Indian nationals holding e-passports — the chip-enabled passports that allow digital identity verification.
To use the facility, travellers must create an e-passport-based Verifiable Credential through the Digi Yatra mobile application. The process involves scanning the machine-readable zone of the e-passport, reading its embedded chip using the near-field communication (NFC) feature of a compatible smartphone, capturing a selfie and verifying the details. The credential is stored in the passenger’s Digi Yatra wallet on the device and can be used at enabled airport touchpoints.
Those touchpoints include terminal entry, security hold areas and boarding gates, wherever the necessary infrastructure is in place. The ministry stressed that availability depends on the airport, the flight and the enabled touchpoint — inclusion of an airport in the trial does not mean every checkpoint there is enabled.
The ministry was equally clear about what Digi Yatra does not do. The facility is intended to supplement, not replace, existing travel procedures. Passengers must still carry their passports and other required travel documents, and must complete airline document verification, immigration formalities and other applicable checks. It reduces repeated identity checks; it does not remove the passport from international travel.
Digi Yatra is already a large operation on the domestic side. The platform has more than 26.5 million users and has facilitated over 110 million journeys across 39 domestic airports, with another 25 domestic airports planned to come under the platform by 2027. Extending it to international departures is the logical next step, though it is also the more complex one, given the additional layers of immigration and airline checks involved.
Feedback gathered during November and December will shape the 2027 rollout — which flights, which airports and which touchpoints come next. For frequent international flyers with e-passports, the trial offers an early taste of a faster airport experience; for everyone else, it is a reminder to check eligibility before expecting a face-scan shortcut at the gate.
